Have the greenest-ever Christmas with a tree from Boneyard Ridge

For the second year, North Coast Land Conservancy is making firs cut on its Boneyard Ridge Habitat Reserve available to the public for Christmas trees. How does cutting Christmas trees help the forest grow? We are thinning a stand of young fir trees in order to encourage healthy tree growth and development of a complex, mature rainforest. The trees we are cutting happen to be the perfect size and shape for Christmas trees. Get your tree from NCLC and contribute to the restoration of Boneyard Ridge and Circle Creek habitat reserves.

Trees will be displayed inside the big barn at NCLC’s Circle Creek Conservation Center. Most of the trees are noble firs, with sturdy branches and an airy structure just right for hanging ornaments. There may be a few grand firs as well. Trees will be available from 11 a.m. and to 1 p.m., or when that day’s trees run out. Come early for best selection. The trees are quite tall but can be cut to height. If you want a really tall Conservation Christmas Tree for your business (or high-ceilinged home), contact Melissa Reich (melissar@NCLCtrust.org) to make arrangements.

When the holidays are over, return your tree to Circle Creek Conservation Center (only Conservation Christmas Trees, please). Volunteers will place it in a stream on Boneyard Ridge or in the floodplain at adjacent Circle Creek Habitat Reserve, where it will provide essential refuge for juvenile coho salmon during the full year they spend in freshwater streams and estuaries prior to entering the ocean. Algae will grow on the submerged tree’s needles and branches, providing a key link in the food chain that salmon and other coastal fish and wildlife depend upon. On the floodplain, your tree will slowly decompose and nourish the soil where NCLC is working to reestablish a native rainforest.

DIRECTIONS: Circle Creek Conservation Center is at the end of Rippet Road in Seaside; look for it on the west side of US 101, 0.7 mile north of the junction with US 26. Follow the road west and north a short distance, passing a gravel quarry on your left, to where it ends in front of the big barn.

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